Preparation of corn starch-g-polystyrene copolymer in ionic liquid: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate

Yongjun Men; Xiyan Du; Jianan Shen; Leli Wang; Zhengping Liu

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.12.068

Preparation of corn starch-g-polystyrene copolymer in ionic liquid: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate

Carbohydr Polym. 2015 May 5:121:348-54. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.12.068. Epub 2015 Jan 3.

Authors

Yongjun Men¹, Xiyan Du¹, Jianan Shen¹, Leli Wang¹, Zhengping Liu²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Polymer Chemistry and Physics, Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China.
² Institute of Polymer Chemistry and Physics, Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China. Electronic address: lzp@bnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 25659709
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.12.068

Abstract

The copolymer of starch grafted with polystyrene (starch-g-PS) was synthesized with high grafting percentage by utilizing the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM]Ac) as solvent and potassium persulfate as initiator. The effect of various parameters upon the polymerization were studied including: initiator concentration, styrene:starch weight ratio, the reaction time and temperature. Grafting percentages were calculated using an FT-IR calibration method, with values up to 114%. The resulting copolymer was characterized using FT-IR, SEM, WAXD and TGA, which demonstrated that polystyrene side chains were evenly distributed on the starch backbone. Our results indicate that ionic liquid dissolution of starch, prior to polystyrene grafting, is a versatile methodology for the synthesis of amphiphilic, polysaccharide-based graft copolymers, having high grafting percent.

Keywords: Grafting polymerization; Ionic liquid; Polystyrene; Starch.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't